“USDA Releases State by State Impacts of Limited Wildfire Suppression in Recent Years” — United States Department of Agriculture
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed that limited federal firefighting funds, which are intended to be spent by states on wildfire preparedness and forest restoration among other outlets, have instead been utilized to fight fires, as other budgets could not provide adequate coverage. Every state is impacted differently by its spending. Across the board, however, the use of these funds has resulted in the weakened value of forest protection programs.“In Effort To Improve Air Quality, Scientists Explore Plan To Use Trees To Clean Pollution” — Associated Press/HuffPost Green
Dow Chemical and the Nature Conservancy are teaming up to reforest the city of Houston in order to cut back on air pollution. The project is inspired by research from the Environmental Protection Agency that indicates that plants─ particularly trees─ collect pollution in their leaves and prevent it from entering the atmosphere.

“Saving trees in tropics could cut emissions by one-fifth, study shows” — Phys.Org
Research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council shows that tropical forests collect two billion tons of carbon annually. This number accounts for one-fifth of yearly global carbon emissions. As the climate grows warmer, the amount of carbon emissions from tropical forests grows too. However, researchers conclude that tropical forests could absorb even more carbon if all deforestation efforts were halted.